Sujavna 2:13

It is 1720hrs on 25^th March 2012

As we approach the hot summer month of April in India and thirst becomes a physiological manifestation of human existence that inflicts itself upon millions and millions of this country’s denizens, the issue of scarcity of good quality of potable water once again taunts us for our singular lack of an original and an innovative approach.

Yes, I do acknowledge that there are a number of initiatives, both at the governmental as well as non-governmental levels that attempt to manage the issue of affordable and accessible water supply, but I am afraid most of these lack any originality or innovativeness; and all of them assume (and perhaps rightly so!) water as an economical good that needs to be centrally produced, distributed through agents, and sold wherever consumers can be induced to purchase.

But why should this be the only approach? Is there some way by which we can tag on the supply, distribution and consumption of water to other basic economic goods, whereby local ecosystems evolve and citizens get incentivised to adopt these ecosystems (for instance can we have a version of buy 1 get 1 free? Or the concept of super-saver packs? Or a system of bankable water-credits that can be swapped by citizens at locally-accessible water-exchanges?)

I am convinced that this is an area that cries for innovation and lateral-thinking by government departments, water-supply companies and NGOs.....and I earnestly hope that a game-changing innovation happens and that too sooner than later!

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Sujavna 2:12

It is 330pm on 18^th March 2012

As a citizen of a country that prides itself as a high-growth economy and as a nation that is destined to become a global leader in many spheres, I am struck at the singularly non-innovative approach that India’s Parliamentarians, bureaucrats, business leaders and economic thinkers bring to formulating and announcing its Budget (or whatever one should be calling its centrally-administered annual economic and fiscal planning and accounting exercise!)

Why is it that we are still focusing on the arithmetic of tax revenues, revenue expenditure and non-revenue expenditure and the impact of this arithmetic, as the Holy Grail of the Budget? Isn’t there some other more interesting and more-practical way of announcing a nation’s financial intentions and presenting a report card on how these intentions were managed and will continue to be managed?

Say for instance, can we not design a Budget speech for the Finance Minister that will attempt to (a) provide a departmental (and I mean each government department of each ministry) input-output matrix statement of planned resource outlays and expected performance outputs (or what many understand as a scorecard plan), (b) provide a statement of intended as well as committed performance metrics which subsequent Parliament standing committees, CAGs and expert think-tanks can refer to when analysing the performance of individual government departments and suggesting mid-term corrections, if any... and (c) communicate both “a” and “b”  through an interesting combination of tools that employ graphical images, specialist communication techniques and reference search technologies, so that all citizens, irrespective of their individual circumstances (visually handicapped, hearing impaired, digitally handicapped, tax-illiterate, financially included only at the margins.........) can all aspire to understand how the government is planning their future prosperity.

I am sure there should be even-more interesting and innovative ways of running through this annual exercise – which, to many of us who are not active contributors looks like a “tamasha”. Can you think of some? Please share your ideas .

Sujavna 2:11

It is 1030pm on 11^th March 2012

What does one think of when one reads that the government is planning to bring out yet another commemorative postal stamp in honour of a great person or a great national tradition or event?

To me it reinforces an image of a government department that refuses to be innovative in its approach and glued to an era that is fading into oblivion. For how else can one conclude on the fact that communications technologies (mobile, internet,…..) and communications business models (couriers……) are effectively making conventional postage (and postage stamps) an anachronism?

So what innovations can still keep government postal departments relevant to their customer base and postage stamps contemporary? I can think of the following:

(a)    Use their extensive geographic network of offices and postmen to provide innovative banking, insurance and healthcare solutions which result in wider penetration and uptake of these critical services. For instance can post-offices sell specially-designed stamps of different denominations that can be traded by its owners for receiving upto 10 times their value in terms of medicines at any pharmacist? The 9X value difference could perhaps be recovered through a system of village / local community group insurance, whose premium is paid partly from the stamp costs and partly by government and partly by the local pharmacists. Stamps thus sold are pasted in a passbook that can be attested by the local postmaster at the time of purchase and duly cancelled by the medicine store where the medicines are bought.

(b)   Provide special training to the extensive community of postmen to become proficient in mobile texting, internet and email, and then use them to provide instant communications services to the digitally-underprivileged customers. The payments for such services can be on highly-competitive basis through a system of sale of stamps. For instance, a customer buys a Rs 2 stamp from the postman which enables her/him to send a two-way communication of upto 25 words each on mobile texting or email service. (S)He uses the stamp the next day to demand seeing the reply message that (s)he has received. The postman is mobile (on his bicycle!)  and makes his rounds across the community at regular intervals of the day. For higher value of stamps, the customer gets to send longer messages or send and receive graphic and image attachments.

Do these ideas make some sense to you? Do you have better ideas? Please let me know. Hope you are having a great weekend.

Sujavna 2:10

It is 630pm on 4^th March 2012

And as Indians prepare to celebrate the spring festival of Holi on 8^th March, my thoughts are converging on how this wonderful festival of colours that unites communities in celebrations can be used innovatively by political parties and government agencies to communicate the relevance and the need for civil society to strengthen and support democratic institutions. For instance:

(a)    Can Indians celebrate the day by sending a token Rs. 5 cheque to the editor of their daily newspaper or news channel as an appreciation of the excellent work that the fourth estate is doing; the amounts collected by the newspaper and channels may be used to fund journalism scholarships to meritorious candidates.

(b)   Can political parties celebrate the day by arranging for the top twenty-five of their senior leaders to camp for the day in select rural constituencies, and celebrate the day through interactions with rural youth on how employment and investments can flow into their rural communities. It would be better if political parties across the spectrum can join in this initiative.

I am sure there are many more ways of using the great community bonding during Holi to foster public-private, government-NGO partnerships, which can help close the great rural-urban divide. Can you share with me some of your ideas on this?

Wishing you a great week ahead.